How to Buy a Home in Ontario | Realtor In Your Pocket Podcast

Buying a home is one of the biggest decisions you’ll ever make—and if you don’t have a clear plan, it can quickly go from exciting to overwhelming. 

The good news? It doesn’t have to.

In our latest episode of Realtor in Your Pocket, Nick Fundytus is joined by our team members and fellow Realtors: Karim Ali and Chelsea Angus. They break down the entire home buying process into four clear stages, giving you a practical roadmap to move from uncertainty to confidence in today’s Ottawa market. 

If you want to dive deeper, explore our full Buyer’s Guide, customized for people living in Ottawa — but still a great resource for anyone looking to buy a home in Ontario. You can even download our free checklist to help take you through things step by step and ensure nothing crucial is missed.

Finally, please feel free to reach out to our team. We would be thrilled to answer any questions, concerns, or talk about your specific situation and goals.

Realtor in Your Pocket is your go-to resource for clear, practical advice on buying, selling, and navigating the Ottawa real estate market—designed to give you the insights you need, exactly when you need them.

If you’re planning your next move (or even just thinking about it), make sure to subscribe on YouTube so you never miss an episode. Prefer to listen on the go? You can also tune in on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major streaming platforms, and take expert guidance with you wherever you are. 

See transcript below:

Nick Fundytus

You’re listening to REALTOR® in your Pocket podcast. Do you want a head start on buying, selling or renting in Ottawa? You’re in the right place. Every episode brings you great advice and insight that you can keep in your back pocket until you make your move. And now, here’s your host, Nick Fundytus.

Purchasing a home is one of the most significant life steps and commitments a person can make, particularly for those navigating the process for the first time. It’s completely natural for feelings of happiness and excitement to be mixed with anxiety or even the fear of making the wrong decision. So on our team, we believe in putting people over properties and our purpose is to offer an experience that is personal, candid and reassuring. As we go into the spring market of 2026, we want to share our expertise openly so so you can feel confident in making decisions that are right for your individual needs. So today we are defining the roadmap for the purchase process. We’ve broken down the journey into four distinct stages, from your initial preparation and effective searching all the way to the nuances of negotiation and a smooth closing day. So, I’m Nick Fundytus and this is Realtor in youn Pocket. Today I’m joined again by two members of my team, Chelsea Angus and Karim Ali, to guide you through the purchase process here in Ottawa. So thank you as always, for coming on the show.

Karim Ali

Thank you for having us.

Nick Fundytus

So I’ll ask you our questions. You know, we have the purchase process lined up on our website there, but it’s useful to talk about these things in detail and why we break it down this way. So, number one, Karim, we always start by defining needs, wants and deal breakers in those columns. Why is it so helpful to have those lists written down before we start looking at homes in person?

Karim Ali

In short, it helps with decision making when you’re in the thick of it, say as you’re choosing between options or even figuring out whether you should narrow it down further. It helps you kind of, you know, front load all of that decision making, so it’s easier when you’re presented with options later on. It’s most important, of course, to know what your needs are and your deal breakers. And then your wants are things that you would ideally like to get, but ultimately you don’t really need them.

Nick Fundytus

Right. So what we say to clients sometimes is, well, every time basically is we are going to help you find a home that fits all of your needs, none of your deal breakers, and as many of your wants as we can fit under budget. And so it’s good for you to know what those are. Okay. Next is budgeting coming into that. So Chels, regarding budgeting and pre approval, how do we help clients look past the purchase price to see kind of the total cost of the home now, including things like property taxes and monthly utilities?

Chelsea Angus

Yeah, so I find it super easy to kind of overlook those other expenses. And many buyers do tend to just look at that big picture price. So we try to correct this as soon as we can. And that typically ends up being during our initial meeting or buyer presentation. So we like to walk buyers through the other costs that come with home ownership. So things like your property taxes, if you’re buying a condo, your condo fees. And then we also want to consider any updates that you might need to do. So maybe you’re putting money aside every month to save up for those things instead of being surprised down the road. So we want to consider it as monthly spending or a monthly budget as opposed to just considering the big ticket list price. Perfect.

Nick Fundytus

And we often talk about having a war chest for, of savings set aside for repairs. What’s kind of a good rule of thumb for the amount that you want to set aside each year, if you can?

Chelsea Angus

Yeah, I tend to advise buyer buyers to save about 1% of the purchase price for those big ticket items. Yeah, yeah.

Nick Fundytus

And then so it means maybe you’re not going to have to repair your roof or replace your furnace this year, but if you accrue that each year if possible, and you’re not living, you know, spending to the absolute maximum of what you can, then you can have that stuff set up for the day that the furnace eventually goes, which is always going to be on the coldest day of the year. It’s going to be at the most inconvenient time. We just did it with my mother in law’s place not too long ago. She was of course out of the country and we checked on her house and the furnace was toast. So it’s good to have that money set aside. The other bet is where can somebody find a list of all the costs that are associated with a purchase?

Chelsea Angus

Yeah, we have a great list actually available on our website and I tend to give it out at every buyer presentation or the first initial meeting with a buyer as well. It’s essentially a spreadsheet of everything you should expect when you’re purchasing a home or things that you should, you know, account for when you are a homeowner. So it, it’ll break down. I think we, we created it based on an average Sale price for last year, so I think it was around 650,000. And we just budgeted numbers for each different category for you to, you know, have a clear picture perfect.

Nick Fundytus

So once we’ve done the preparation stage and we know where we’re, where we’re going, and part of that is we move into a search. So one of the parts of effective searching is finding a Realtor. We have other episodes on that on how to pick your Realtor. We have good guides and of course, if you’re here in Ottawa, we think you should work with us. But when you’re searching, we use tools like Realm to give our clients a direct line to the MLS. So how does that help use our clients time more effectively? So this one’s for Karim. And how does that help them stay us to stay on their wavelength during the search?

Karim Ali

It’s a good question. Yeah, I mean, ultimately what Realm is, it’s, it’s a more say, detailed way to, to look at properties. So it’s. You have more criteria to choose from. So if you’re looking at Realtor.ca, you may not be able to specify certain criteria. That would be very helpful to have something as simple as total bedrooms available versus bedrooms above grade.

Nick Fundytus

You know, what’s the difference between above grade and below grade?

Karim Ali

Sure, yeah. Some lingo here, below grade would be in the basement or lower. So anything that is below the soil level, say, that’d be below grade. So some people might be open to having bedrooms in the basement, others are needing basements to be above grade. But ultimately what this allows us to do is to target the properties you’re looking for easier and avoid kind of, you know, background noise so that you don’t miss out on the properties that actually matter to you. It also allows us to better understand what you’re looking for because we get to see the properties you’re liking and disliking. And notes you can leave. There’s also a function of notes you can leave on Realm, which allows us to see your feedback in real time, which is pretty cool.

Nick Fundytus

Yeah. And who can see those notes?

Karim Ali

Only your Realtors or yourself. So sellers can see it, the sellers, Realtors can’t see it. So it’s helpful to be a bit blunt with those notes so we can better send you.

Nick Fundytus

Yeah, for our, for our buyer clients or anybody who’s working with a Realtor who’s watching this. I mean, be as blunt as you want in those notes. The seller’s never going to see it. You’re not going to hurt any feelings. And it’s much better for us to know your honest feelings, to really understand what it is you need and want and whether something’s a good fit for you. We’ve had success quite a few times over the years where we’ve had a client that’s either discarded a house from their search, they thought it wasn’t going to work out, or that, you know, got busy and wasn’t able to pay as much attention to their search. And we’ve often brought one to their attention that they thought wasn’t going to be a fit because we kind of knew what they were looking for at this point and said maybe you need to overlook the paint colors or, you know, the, you know, the weird style choices and actually layout wise and important stuff. This is something that’s going to be really good for you. So Dave, if you’re listening, this is why you’re in the house that you’re in.

So next one for Chels here. So when it’s time to actually make an offer, what are the essential components of an offer? So in the 2026 market, what kind of conditions, what kind of things are we seeing right now?

Chelsea Angus

Yeah, so I think the big things that you want to focus on, I mean the obvious one is price and then you have deposit. So the stronger the deposit, the more financially stable or the larger the commitment, you know, appears to the seller when you’re submitting that offer. We typically suggest a minimum of 1% of the purchase price. That’s considered a healthy deposit. But anything more than that just shows a larger commitment. And then conditions, of course are important as well. You want to protect the buyer and allow them time to do their due diligence. But we don’t want to make the conditions too, too long so that it’s unappealing to the seller as well. And today in 2026, a little bit different than back in the COVID times where buyers were going in conditionless. We do see conditions pretty often now and the common ones are financing and inspection. And if you’re purchasing a condo, a status review is usually in there as well.

Nick Fundytus

Yeah, beyond that, I mean, what kind of conditions have you seen beyond those major ones?

Chelsea Angus

Yeah, I’d say it’s really property specific. When we walk through the property prior to submitting an offer, I like to highlight things around the home to the buyer. And if we see something that might need further due diligence beyond maybe like a general home inspection, we would include a, you know, a condition for that as well. For example, if we know the roof is in pretty rough shape, maybe we get a roof specialist to come through as a condition. Or if you’re looking at a country home well in septic conditions, water tests are also quite common.

Karim Ali

Yep.

Nick Fundytus

Hey, it’s Nick Fundytus. Question. What’s your favorite social media platform? Are you big on Instagram? Do you Reddit no matter where you are? I’d love for you to find me there and connect. All you need to do is type Nick Fundytus and follow and lets you and I connect. I’d love to be able to provide you the right answers, the right resources and the right content to help you make your next move. If you send me a question, I always answer back. So subscribe and I’ll see you there soon.

Karim, our team is known for being good negotiators. So how do different negotiation styles come into play when we’re trying to secure a win for our buyers?

Karim Ali

Sure. It’s a good question. It’s a fun question too. Negotiation is always the funnest part, I think for me of buying a property purchase.

Nick Fundytus

Yeah. And if you take away everything else that a Realtor is supposed to do, I mean, being a good negotiator is the main one you want to be left with.

Karim Ali

It’s the biggest value add we bring.

Chelsea Angus

Right.

Karim Ali

It’s where you can really make a difference for a client. But really it depends on the situation. I think we’re adaptable is what we are. First, let’s say, you know, we’re offering on a property where it’s been on market for a long time. This is where you can be confident in your negotiation. You can seek a win lose. And that’s probably what most buyers seek in buying a property. Because this seller is someone you can deal with once. Right. So they’re going to try to get the terms that are best for themselves. But it doesn’t always work. If the seller isn’t needing to sell, they may not play along with that strategy and it might lead to some kind of sort of seeking revenge by the seller if they feel as though they’ve been taking advantage of in that negotiation. So that’s the first one. The second one would be one where we are, you know, adaptive to sellers. Needs say we’re one offer between five. We’re trying to be adaptive to sellers. Needs, understand, understanding, sorry, their what they really want for price, their ideal closing date, their ideal terms to match that best so that we can get the property for our buyers.

And lastly, there is also the collaborative tone that we Take probably most often where it’s, you know, let’s say there’s a property on market that we really like, but we don’t really need this property and the sellers don’t really need to sell to us. But it’s probably in both our advantages to be collaborative, understand what sellers need and want and try to offer that to them while getting a fair deal for the property. Those are the three main ones. There are other ones like, you know, avoidant, where you’re kind of stalling things if you know, the seller is really eager to sell and you’re just trying to get the best deal for yourself.

Nick Fundytus

Yeah, I find if I look at my negotiations a lot of time, I’m often on the seller side just because the way our team is structured. But when I’m with buyers, I try to instruct buyers that say we’re, you know, you’ve got another set of people on the other side who, you know, deserve as much dignity through the process as you do. We’re going to try and get the best result for you, but we’re going to do that through education. So we’re going to use comparables to know exactly where this fits. We’re going to learn everything we can about the seller and what their motivations are. And we’re not going to be cruel, but we’re going to leverage, you know, the advantages that we have to get the best price and terms and the best protection for you and your offer, whether that be through conditions or price or just concessions that the seller makes. And I see that all the time with you too as well. So people come back often. If we’re working like a purchase, end sale, and I’m on the sales side, I’ll often hear from our sellers that they’re really happy with kind of how you went in on the buyer side and you took what can sometimes be a really antagonistic part of the process, the negotiation, and you turned it into a conversation which, which really like, ends in a good result and ends with goodwill.

And what you were saying, you touched on the, the bit about sellers taking revenge if they feel taken advantage of. A seller really can make the end of a purchase frustrating if they decide that they’re going to take, you know, take everything out of the house with them or they’re just going to be really petty about things or leave it in a mess. The goodwill, it has some value in it, so we want to leave some of that in the transaction as well.

Karim Ali

Yeah, we sell a ton.

Nick Fundytus

Okay, you get this one, Chels Due Diligence. So during the conditional period, we often categorize problems into three buckets. So can you explain the framework and how that helps lower a buyer’s stress? Why do we use that and what are the buckets?

Chelsea Angus

Yeah, so I’ll typically explain this framework when we’re about to go into our due diligence period or our conditional period to my buyers. And essentially we have three kinds of problems that can arise and three solutions to them. So the first one is that it’s an acceptable problem. You know, maybe it’s as simple as a loose toilet, or maybe it’s something that we knew about and accounted for when we made the offer. So perhaps we knew the roof was older and we kind of budgeted that for that when we were, you know, when we came to an agreement. The second problem, or solution you can call it, is to renegotiate. So maybe it’s something that came up during an inspection that we weren’t accounting for, wasn’t disclosed. For example, a furnace at the end of its life. Maybe we go back to the sellers. You know, buyers still want to make it work. Sellers obviously want to sell their house. So maybe it’s just a matter of a conversation to kind of meet somewhere in the middle, whether that’s renegotiating price or maybe seller replacing the furnace before closing. And then the last one is to walk away.

Maybe it’s a problem that’s just so grand that doesn’t really have a solution, or it may not be something that the buyer wants to take on, such as like structural concerns or foundation problems. And maybe it’s also something that we just can’t renegotiate.

Nick Fundytus

Right. Yes. You had something like that recently with, I mean, there was a septic field and it was just, it wasn’t going to be. It was a septic field that was wearing out much sooner than the installation would have suggested.

Chelsea Angus

Right.

Nick Fundytus

And for this buyers, it wasn’t something that they had the extra money because, I mean, it was going to be $30,000 – $40,000 to replace this. It’s not money that they had cash on hand and the sellers had installed it. They were obviously surprised and disappointed too. But in the end, it wasn’t a bridge that we could over could overcome. And it became a walkway problem.

Chelsea Angus

It did, yeah. Yeah.

Nick Fundytus

So for those three buckets, who gets to choose where a problem falls, what bucket it falls in?

Chelsea Angus

Yeah. So essentially, as a Realtor, we’re there to help guide the buyer and, you know, use that framework to keep it as stress free as Possible. But ultimately it’s their decision on how they feel. We are there to provide them with the facts and information and you know, quotes if need be. For example, if it’s a furnace, maybe we can have, you know, H Vac Tech come in and give us an estimate for what it would cost to replace and then all those things that we provide help them make that decision. But ultimately it is their, their call on how they’re feeling throughout the process.

Nick Fundytus

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because any decision that the buyer makes is, it’s something that they have to live with down the line. So you know, we educate to get them there and help them make that decision. You touched on something interesting and it was the furnace example of the furnace, that it’s the end of its lifespan. It’s, there’s lots of, there’s lots of problems that can end in multiple buckets depending on how somebody is comfortable about it. But a furnace, I could see it ending up in any one of them.

Chelsea Angus

Yeah.

Nick Fundytus

So if, if a furnace is old and it’s disclosed on the listing and the house is priced appropriately, I mean, nine times out of ten this is an acceptable problem. You just, you, you buy the house, you offer an amount that lets you budget to replace that furnace. And so that’s the, in the acceptable budget. Now if you go in and turns out that the furnace is in worse shape than you thought and the inspector, inspector flags something and it turns out that the seller was unaware that it was that old or that it was in that condition, surprise to both of you. I mean, yeah, they’re probably going to be pretty open to negotiation. And a furnace is in that price range where I would say it’s about 1% of the purchase price in a lot of houses, especially for first time buyers, that it’s worth renegotiating. And then there’s the situation where maybe the furnace is older and the sellers lied about it or they’ve, or they’ve, you know, carefully omitted that fact from you. That can sometimes be a walk away issue, not necessarily just because of the furnace, but because of the tone it creates.

If the, if the seller is willing not to disclose that bit, you know, what else are they potentially trying to hide? So, and especially if you’re a first time buyer, I mean you want as much info as you can and if you, if seller is hiding something, it, it makes, it changes the whole tone of the purchase for sure. Okay, I’ve got some more questions for you. So after you remove, after you go through your conditional period, you go through your Due diligence. We give the seller notice that we’ve fulfilled conditions or waived them. We reach the firm period. So the firm period is kind of the period of no turning back. Once a deal is firm, many buyers now think that the work is done. So what is happening behind the scenes during this period between the lawyer and the lender and the rest of the team to ensure that the firm period is actually quiet and organized?

Karim Ali

Lots happens. Yeah. I mean, first of all, your lender prepares kind of the mortgage package. That’s the point where they’ll probably ask you to get insurance for the property so you can finalize that package. Once that package is finalized, you’ll be part of that process. Of course, you’ll have to agree to the terms and agree to the timeline of it. They’ll send it out to a lawyer, and lawyer will review it and then have their own kind of processes to processes, rather sorry to close the property. So do a title check to make sure there are no liens against it, no recruitments. The title is clear, really. And then they’ll probably call you in, you know, a few days before closing, so you can go give them the check with the down payment, minus adjustments or plus adjustments, and have you sign the final paperwork. Really? Yeah, yeah.

Nick Fundytus

There’s a lot moving. And as Realtors, we’re sort of quarterbacks of that part of the process. But it’s really. I mean, it’s kind of the lawyer and the lender’s show at this point. And we’ve said this lots of different venues, and we say this to our clients in person. Many people don’t under. Don’t realize that their lender can help them get a pre. Or help them change to a better rate if there’s a better rate becomes available all the way up until about a week before closing. So if you’ve got a good lender, if you selected one and you select them just like selecting a good Realtor or from a referral from us, then they will watch for those rate changes and make sure that you’re being looked after.

Karim Ali

Okay.

Nick Fundytus

Finally, closing day. So we’ve made it through the firm period. We’ve prepared appropriately, we found a great house, we’ve negotiated well, and closing day finally comes. So this is the date of the completion on your agreement of purchase and sale. So final walkthroughs are a part of our service. So what are we looking for during that visit before closing day? When do we have it and what are the final steps A buyer needs to make sure that closing day itself is a success.

Chelsea Angus

Yeah. So depending on how far the closing date is, I actually try and get sometimes two walkthroughs prior to closing, but we want at least one, and I tend to suggest to buyers to conduct that final walkthrough within the last week before closing. And our goal of that walkthrough is to just walk through, walk through and make sure that the home is in the same condition as it was when we offered. So we’ll walk through it. Usually at this point, it’s vacant, so you get to see everything. And we always test appliances, make sure they’re functional, because if there are any issues or if we notice anything that looks a little bit different from when we originally saw the home, we want to flag that to their lawyer right away so that it can be resolved prior to actually completing or closing the deal on the closing date. So, yeah, it’s a great time to. For the buyer to walk through one final time before the transfer of ownership. Some buyers will bring family and friends to see the home, but it’s usually. It’s a really fun time, and it’s usually an exciting time because, you know, closing is right around the corner.

Nick Fundytus

Yeah, it’s usually. And yeah, we, like you said, we tend to do this pretty close to closing. I usually do mine in the last week. I don’t love some. Some Realtors will book, like, the day before closing. I’m not a huge fan of that. I find that there’s not a lot left you can do. And if there is something that you’re asking to do, it’s. It’s bad feelings all around because it’s just like one last. You know, you’re almost at the finish line, somebody’s throwing up a hurdle for you to jump over.

Chelsea Angus

Yeah, I like to keep a couple business days in between closing and the walkthrough just because, like I said, if there is anything, I mean, that gives the lawyer time to work on it, you know, lawyer to lawyer, and find a solution, rather than scrambling on closing or potentially delaying closing as well. Yeah.

Nick Fundytus

Okay. Here’s some pocket advice to close out the thing. So wrap up. I’ll get each of you. You can choose who goes first here. I’d like to ask each of you for one piece of advice. If someone is planning to start their home search this week or, you know, as you go through, what is a practical thing they can do to set themselves up for success during this process.

Karim Ali

You want to go first?

Chelsea Angus

Sure. My biggest tip of advice would be to have an initial meeting with us. So to have that buyer presentation. And that kind of will outline…

Nick Fundytus

How early is too early?

Chelsea Angus

Oh, it’s never too early because that essentially outlines the whole process from start to finish and even beyond. And a lot of questions tend to come up during that meeting as well. And if they haven’t, you know, obtained a pre approval yet, that’s kind of like the trigger point where we send them, you know, send them off, we give them referrals if they need it. And it’s just. It ends up being a great first meeting. They collect a lot of information, we give them a lot of resources, and it kind of sets them up for success.

Karim Ali

It’s true. Yeah. Mine would be related to your budget. You know, run the numbers for yourself, look at your expenses on a monthly basis and figure out what your comfortable budget would be to allocate to housing so that when you meet with your mortgage broker or even your Realtor, you can kind of decide on what your budget will be exactly for the purchase.

Nick Fundytus

Those are both good. I will give mine as a much smaller piece of advice because you guys gave such great big ones. Mine is when you go, start looking at houses, batch those together, Use your. Use your Realtor. So if you’re working. When you’re working with Karim or Chelsea or Tay on our team, go let them know a few days ahead. Say, if possible, sometimes the house you want comes up that day. But say, okay, I’d love to go out on Saturday. Can you block off this time? These are a few houses I’d love to show. And then the little tips in there, like, give them the street addresses, and if you give us those in an email, we can book them like that. And then when you go. And then when you go on showings, the pro tip is, you know who’s been on a few showings before is because they’re wearing slip off shoes.

Chelsea Angus

Yeah.

Nick Fundytus

Nobody’s, you know, nobody’s stopping to tie their shoes. And then if you’re shopping in the winter, bring a pair of extra socks because at some point, especially during open houses, those front lobbies will all be wet from people coming and going. Bring a dry parrot, it makes the rest of the day much nicer.

Karim Ali

Or even older houses with, like, you know, dusty basements.

Nick Fundytus

Oh, yeah.

Karim Ali

Destroyed. Yeah, through those basements. So, yeah.

Nick Fundytus

And we’re in Canada, so this… We’re shoes off households. I don’t know if anybody’s wearing anybody’s watching this in the States, but stop that. Stop wearing your shoes through houses. Okay? Chelsea and Karim, thank you very much for coming on and thank you for walking us through those four stages today. So it is clear that having a plan makes all the difference in moving from anxiety to confidence. If you are listening and want to see the detailed guide we’ve discussed, head over to nickfundytus.ca Buyers Guide to find our full roadmap. Go to YouTube to watch our videos on the process and we even have videos explaining the paperwork on YouTube as well. I’m Nick Fundytus and we will see you next month.

Nick Fundytus

What is People first when it comes to real estate? After all, we’re buying and selling properties, so is it really about people?

People first just means that people are more important than properties. It means that at the heart of every move, there’s a human story. And that’s why my team and I have to be excellent for you every time you buy or sell a home. That’s why we take so much time to educate all our clients on the market and on the process. That’s why we are continually improving our processes, honing our negotiation skills so that you know you are getting Ottawa’s best when you work with us. That’s why we stay in touch year after year with our past clients. Because I believe, and we believe as a team, that being a business in Ottawa means that we have an obligation to our community to improve it, to serve it, and to connect the people who live in it. In an era where property sales are often prioritized over people, our team puts relationships first, one client at a time. One relationship at a time. That’s People First Real Estate.

–End.